Starting a new Art Journal
Recently I was talking to one of my clients about what I call my ideas/inspiration note and sketch pads. He laughed and said I was art journaling and didn’t even know it. I thought I wasn’t since most of my pages seemed a mess and wasn’t what I would call pretty but I was reminded that is how all creative processes start! So while I still have my beat up notebooks and pads around here I started one a little more artistic in nature by re-purposing a old sketch pad of mine.I had to start with the front cover, adding a new layer of card stock and pulling out all of my paper crafting supplies! I started with stamps and kept going!
I stamped gears, a clock and words to remind me to take the time to create and let go. I used one of my favorite embossing powder recipes, added stickers, paper and doodled across the cover.
It is rather enjoyable to create a book for myself and not anyone else, a great way to relax and to highlight things I enjoy. After I worked on the front cover I wanted some of my art journal pages contain little snips of stories or themes that inspire me. Using one of my favorite quotes by Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland I came up with the idea of doing a Cheshire cat page. I have always seen the cat as philosophical in nature, a reminder of how things are or could be.Hop on over to the Globecraft and Piccolo Blog for my Cheshire Cat journal page tutorial with Globecraft and Piccolo products!
If you would like to read Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has a free EBook of Alice in Wonderland.The Project Gutenberg website preserves literary and other intellectual works, and make copies of or products based on those works available free of charge or at the lowest possible cost to the people of the United States and the rest of the world. Many of the books are free because their copyright has expired.
Until next time, safe travels!
Antique treasures inspire new art
A few months back I found a box full of mementos of my grandmother’s on my father’s side of the family. It was full of vintage family photos, many I had never seen, of my grandparents, father and many other family members. Sadly since many of them are now passed these items are my window, not only into my family’s past but snippets of history. So many of the photos are in good condition and I went about scanning them in to be able to send to family members who might be able to help me finding out who is in the photos. Through this treasure trove of letters, photos and mementos I found out my grandmother Luella Ann was into fashion, jewelry and crafts. I even found a vintage rhinestone and pearl setter for fabric and jewelry of her’s!
So here comes the Globecraft and Piccolo Design Team June Challenge to create a a scrapbook layout using G&P products. This was a bit of a true challenge to me since I do a lot of papercrafts but rarely do scrapbook layouts. So this sent me scrambling to find something to inspire me. My little light bulb of inspiration lit up and I thought of all of the lovely old photos of my family!
I went searching through the photos trying to find the best. Some photos had names and dates on them and after a while I was able to find photos of my grandmother from when she was a child (born in 1905) all the way into the 1980s!
I picked some of my favorite photos of my grandmother Luella Ann and printed them out on photopaper (I didn’t want to use the originals in my art, they are too precious to alter). Then started to work up a layout showing her as a teenager, getting married and spending time with family as an adult. Keeping in mind her love for sunshine yellow, gold and rhinestones, I created a layout using Globecraft and Piccolo products.Hop on over to the Globecraft and Piccolo Blog for my scrapbook layout tutorial, honoring my grandmother using these vintage photos, with Globecraft and Piccolo products!
What type of inspiration might you find in old photos and memento boxes? 🙂
Until next time, safe travels!
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry